1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of remotely instructing printing by issuing a print job to a printing device connected via a predetermined network, the printing device, a printing system having the information processing apparatus and the printing device, a control method for the information processing apparatus, a control method for the printing device, a printing method for the printing system, programs for executing the printing method, and storage media.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, in a system in which an information processing terminal such as a computer and a printing device are connected via a network, the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) has been developed and attracting attention as a technique for causing the printing device to execute printing according to an instruction from the information processing terminal.
This specifies a communication procedure (protocol) for performing printing in a network printing device located in a remote place and organized by Printer Working Group (PWG) which is an international standardization organization related to printing. An initial version specification thereof is widely opened to the public as RFC2566 which is one of Internet standards according to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
In the IPP, a plurality of attributes for closely controlling various printer operations and job operations for printing and print jobs are specified.
For the printer operations, “Print-Job (printing execution)”, “Get-Printer-Attributes (printer attributes acquisition)”, “Get-Jobs (job list acquisition)”, and the like are specified. In addition, for the job operations, “Cancel-Job (cancellation of job)”, “Get-Job-Attributes (job state acquisition)”, “Hold-Job (suspension of job)”, “Release-Job (resumption of job)”, and the like are specified. In this way, several kinds of processing for controlling start to end of printing are specified.
In addition, in order to designate a detailed setting for a printing device and to designate a detailed output form of a print, various attributes such as the number of copies, a finishing form, a print medium, and quality are specified.
Then, a user can designate an IPP operation after designating these IPP attributes in advance.
Note that the IPP is specified as a protocol for an application layer in a network architecture. It is specified that “HTTP V1.1” is used as a transport protocol.
Incidentally, as it has become easier for a user to perform control of a printing device and control from generation to completion of a job through a network, requirement has been increased for dealing with matters such as management of access to the printing device or control of access to a job by the user, and security on the network.
The IPP adopts an encryption communication system according to Transport Layer Security (TLS) as a method for guaranteeing security on the network.
The TLS logically constructs a secure channel, which utilizes an encryption technique, on a network connecting a client device (e.g., user PC) and a printing device. In addition, the TLS also has a mechanism for guaranteeing reliability of a client and a printing device utilizing a hierarchical digital certificate according to Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
More secured remote printing can be realized by utilizing a client and a printing device in which the respective techniques of the IPP and the TLS are applied and implemented.
A general conventional example of the secured printing will be hereinafter described.
A user executes remote printing according to the IPP from his/her own personal computer (PC) or the like in advance. This can be performed according to the “Print-Job” operation and the like specified in the IPP.
A printing device is provided with an IPP server function and can accept the “Print-Job” operation. Then, after accepting the “Print-Job” operation, the printing device generates a print job.
With the IPP, a job URI is issued for each operation request in order to specify the generated print job and informs the user of the job URI as an IPP response. The printing device returns this job URI to the user who issued the operation. The user can designate the job URI in order to execute an operation (acquisition, cancellation, or the like of a job status) with respect to the job later.
In the case of the remote secured printing, printing is not processed immediately after a print operation is issued. A job is held in a state in which it is accumulated in a data spool area of the printing device. This is for preventing a print from being outputted before the user reaches the place where the printing device is located.
In addition, the IPP specifies predetermined attributes for realizing such processing. Moreover, since print data and IPP operations flowing on the network all go through a secured logical channel according to the TLS, there is no fear of leakage or the like of user information and print data.
Now, the print job held in the printing device is released as described below. That is, the user who issued the job URI goes to the front of the printing device and inputs a password on an operation panel of the printing device. The password is usually registered in the printing device as information peculiar to the user.
Upon succeeding in user authentication with the password, the user acquires his/her own job list from the operation panel. The “Get-Jobs” operation of the IPP is performed for the acquisition of the job list. Then, the user designates the job URI in the hold state, which was generated earlier, and designates release (resumption) of the job.
For this processing, the “Release-Job” operation of the IPP is performed. The user can complete the print processing by performing a series of operations including the authentication, the job list acquisition, and the release of the job on the operation panel of the printing device.
Now, as described in the above-mentioned conventional example, in order to perform the secured printing, the user has to process, on the operation panel of the printing device, the three steps consisting of the user authentication, the acquisition of the job list issued by himself/herself, and the release (resumption) of the job on hold through designation of the job URI.
That is, as the operations of the IPP, after the authentication, the user issues the “Get-Jobs (job list acquisition)” operation in order to acquire his/her own job URI list, and designates the “Release-Job (resumption of suspended job)” operation with respect to the predetermined job URI on hold.
In this way, the user has to execute each of the above-mentioned three steps in order to realize the secured printing, and complexity in the operations cannot be avoided.
Moreover, usually, the operation panel of the printing device is only provided with an extremely small or minimum necessary operation area for the purpose of reducing cost.
Therefore, there is a problem in that, if the user has to process many operations on the operation panel on the printing device, the user's feeling of use of the printing device is extremely deteriorated.